the seal of the society and the hands of two members of the committee of management. No such petition can be filed except pursuant to a resolution of a special meeting of the society duly called for the purpose in accordance with its rules, and with respect to such resolution and the procedure thereon sections 98 and 99 apply. Such petition when duly filed must be referred to the court by the clerk, and the court, if it considers the dispute sufficiently grave to call for investigation and settlement, must notify the minister thereof and appoint a time and place at which the dispute can be investigated and determined, in like manner as in the case of a reference, and the court has jurisdiction to hear and determine the same accordingly and to make award thereon. In making any award under this section, the court must have regard to the schedule to the government railways department classification act, 1896. In any proceedings before the court under this section, the minister is represented by any officer of the department whom he appoints in that behalf. All expenses incurred and moneys payable by the minister under this section are payable out of moneys appropriated by parliament for the purpose. In no case does the board have any jurisdiction over the society, nor has the society or any branch thereof any right to nominate or vote for the election of any member of the board. Except for the purposes of this section, the court has no jurisdiction over the society. For the purposes of the appointment of members of the court, the society is deemed to be an industrial union of workers and can make recommendations to the governor accordingly.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Any notification made or purporting to be made in the Gazette under the authority of this act can be given in evidence in all courts of justice and in all legal proceedings by the production of a copy of the Gazette. Every document bearing the seal of the court must be received in evidence without further proof, and the signature of the president of the court, or of the chairman of the board, or of the registrar, or of the clerk of awards is judicially noticed in or before any court or person acting judicially or under any authority contained in this act; provided such signature is attached to some award, order, certificate, or other official document made under this. act. No proof is required of the handwriting or official position of any person acting in pursuance of this section. The governor from time to time makes regulations for the following purposes:

Prescribing the forms of certificates or other instruments to be issued by the registrar, and of any certificate of other proceeding of any board, or any officer thereof; prescribing the duties of clerks of awards, and of all other officers and persons acting in the execution of the act; providing for anything necessary to carry out the first or any subsequent election of members of boards, or any vacancy therein, or in the office of the chairman of any board, including the forms of any notice, proceeding, or instrument of any kind to be used in or in respect of any such election; providing for the mode in which recommendations by industrial unions as to the appointment of members of the court shall be made and authenticated; prescribing any act or thing necessary to supplement or render more effectual the provisions of the act as to the conduct of proceedings before a board or the court, or the transfer of such proceedings from one of such bodies to the other; providing generally for any other matter or thing necessary to give effect to

this act, or to meet any particular case; prescribing what fees shall be paid in respect of any proceeding before a board or the court, and the party by whom such fees shall be paid; prescribing what respective fees shall be paid to the members of the court (other than the president) and to the members of the board; prescribing what respective traveling expenses shall be payable to the members of the court (including the president), and to the members of the board; and for any purpose for which regulations are contemplated or required in order to give full effect to this act.

All such regulations come into force on the date of the gazetting thereof, and are laid before parliament within fourteen days after such gazetting, if parliament is then in session, or within fourteen. days after the beginning of the next session.

All charges and expenses incurred by the government in connection with the administration of this act are defrayed out of such annual appropriations as are from time to time made for that purpose by parliament. No stamp duty is payable in respect of any registration, certificate, agreement, award, statutory declaration, or instrument effected, issued, or made under this act; provided that nothing in this section applies to the fees of any court payable by means of stamps. The acts specified in the schedule hereto have been repealed; provided, nevertheless, as follows:

1. Every person appointed to any office under such repealed acts, and holding office at the time of the repeal, shall be deemed to have been duly appointed under this act.

2. Every union or association registered and incorporated under such repealed acts at the time of the repeal shall be deemed to be registered and incorporated under this act.

3. All registers, records, certificates, awards, industrial agreements, and other official documents existing under such repealed acts at the time of the repeal shall endure and continue for the purposes of this act.

4. All proceedings pending under such repealed acts at the time of the repeal may be continued and completed under this act. Except as provided by section 109 hereof, nothing in this act applies to the Crown, or to any department of the government of New Zealand.

SCHEDULE.

No. 14. The industrial conciliation and arbitration act, 1894.

No. 30.—The industrial conciliation and arbitration act amendment act, 1895. No. 57.—The industrial conciliation and arbitration act amendment act, 1896. No. 40. The industrial conciliation and arbitration act amendment act, 1898. FRANK DILLINGHAM,

AUCKLAND, October 15, 1902.

No 270-03- 3

Consul.

IRRIGATION WORKS OF INDIA.

Irrigation has been common in India since an early period of her history, but the fact that she now possesses the most extensive irrigating system in the world is due to the British Government, which has spent from time to time over $150,000,000 on these works.

The works on the Ganges were opened in 1854 by Lord Dalhousie, then Governor-General of India. Since that date, however, they have been vastly enlarged and improved, and now the total length of the main canals and branches is 1,096 miles and the area irrigated 1,605,740 acres.

The Bari Do0ab Canal, 363 miles long, irrigates 777,451 acres. The East Jumna and West Jumna canals, 488 miles long, irrigate 946, 220 acres. The Sirhind Canal, 319 miles long, irrigates 782,700 acres. The Sone project, which is only partly completed, extends 367 miles and irrigates 440, 796 acres. The Chenab Canal, opened in 1887, when it irrigated only 10,854 acres, now, through a succession of extensions, irrigates 1,500,000 acres, and this area will be increased in the near future to 2,000,000 acres. The total length of its main channel and branches is 429 miles. The Jhelum Canal, recently opened, will irrigate the large tract of arid country lying between the town of that name and the Indus River to the south of the Salt Range. In the Bombay presidency there are several large works which, combined, irrigate 1,968,783 acres.

But the irrigation works in the Madras presidency are on the most colossal scale. They were projected in 1835 by Sir Anthony Cotton, a hydraulic engineer of great ability. His object was to cover all India with a system of canals which would serve both for irrigation and navigation. If this project had been carried out, the material condition of the country would have been transformed. Among Sir Anthony's great works are those on Cavery and Coleroon rivers, in the districts of Trichinopoly, Tanjore, and South Arcot. They include the dam, or anicut, which turns the waters of the Upper Coleroon into the Cavery River on the right and at the same time irrigates abundantly the Trichinopoly district on the left. Among them also is a second and still larger dam, 70 miles lower down the Coleroon, which, again intercepting the water, much of which percolates through the deep sands of the river bed, distributes it bountifully among the southern taluks of South Arcot. The financial success of the Cavery Delta Works, which irrigate 934,123 acres, has been marked. The last official return-1900-1901– gives the earnings on the capital invested as 31 per cent, while the

increased value of private property has been equally large. In seasons of scarcity, these districts have not only been free from the horrors of famine, but have also been able to pour large supplies of food into the stricken provinces.

The next great work of Sir Anthony Cotton was the dam across the Godavery River. It is of greater magnitude and presented more engineering difficulties than the dams on the Cavery and Coleroon. The total width of the river at the point where it was decided to build the dam is rather more than 3 miles. Intercepting islands, however, reduce the length of the dam proper to 21⁄2 miles. The profits from these works are less than those returned by the Cavery system, as the cost of keeping up the former is considerably greater; but despite this fact, they yield over 15 per cent on the money invested, irrigate 749,612 acres of land, and have converted a region once among the poorest in India into one of the most prosperous.

The Kistna system, built a few years after the Godavery Dam, irrigates 507,354 acres and yields an interest of 15 per cent on the capital expended.

Farther south, on the border of the Madura district and of the native state of Travancore, there has recently been constructed an irrigation work commonly known as the Periyar project, even more ambitious in design and presenting greater difficulties of execution than any yet undertaken in India. It consists of turning eastward the course of the River Periyar, a large stream rising in the Travancore hills, which, flowing northward, has hitherto fruitlessly poured its fertilizing treasure into the Arabian Sea. Now, by means of a great dam, one of the largest in the world, and a tunnel through the Ghats, 11⁄2 miles in length, it has been compelled to mingle with the Vaiyar River, and the vast volume of water spreads plenty through the land as far as the Bay of Bengal. When fully completed, the works will irrigate at least 150,000 acres, excellent for the cultivation of rice.

There are many other similar works of considerable magnitude; but those I have mentioned will give an idea of the vast scheme of irrigation that is being carried out in India.

Some of the canals designed first for irrigation are now used more or less for navigation and constitute part of the work of the British Government of opening up communication throughout the country.

The nature of the climate and the inequality of the rainfall have led to the practice of irrigation from time immemorial in India. It is absolutely necessary in Sind and the Punjab, and hardly less so in the tract lying between the Aravalla and Chilton hills, in the eastern part of the Bombay presidency; also in the greater part of

the Nizam's territory and in some districts in Madras, in Mysore, and in the Carnatic. Irrigation is so essential in the eastern districts of Madras, as well as in central India, that without it a failure of the periodical rains would produce most serious results.

Until the country is covered with canals and provided with tanks for the storage of rain water for irrigation purposes, it will be subject to the ever-recurring visitations of famine, which bring disaster, misery, and death to millions of people.

The irrigation works of India are divided into two main classesmajor and minor, the former being subdivided into productive and protective works. The most important are those classed as productive works, or works the cost of which has been wholly sustained by loan funds, in expectation that they would prove directly remunerative and that the net revenue derived from them would fully cover all charges for interest within a reasonable time after their completion.

The protective works are those that have been sanctioned in consideration of their value as famine preventives, without any expectation of their becoming directly remunerative; and the cost of their construction has been met from the famine grant. At present, there are five of these works in operation.

All expenditures incurred in the construction and development. of minor irrigation works are met from the revenue of India.

The following statement shows the general result of the irrigation works in British India of which capital and revenue accounts are kept, up to and during the year 1900-1901: